“Are you in any sports?”

“I am in dance.”

“No, like any actual sports?”

I’ve been dancing for nearly 10 years.

These conversations never fail to make me angry. 

Have you ever seen someone who dances? 

Do you really think you could just get up in front of everyone right now and do exactly what they do? 

The same could be said about cheer.

I’d like to know why dance is not more athletically respected. My wild guess is because it is considered girly.

According to Pitt News, women make up 73.4% of dancers. Ironically, dance is the only sport that puts boys and girls together most of the time.

The real and unfortunate truth is that dance is less respected because it is female dominated.

Throughout history, things that girls enjoy have always been looked down upon. 

The color pink, glitter, Taylor Swift, makeup and shopping are all stereotypical examples of things that women and girls are constantly made fun of and ridiculed for.

In the principal’s introductory slideshows at the beginning of the year, there was a slide that showed all of the sports and activities at school. 

Every sport was listed under the sports category except for dance and cheer. They were listed under ‘extracurricular activities’ with all of the clubs. Notice how the majority clubs have nothing to do with physical activity because those are called sports.

Sophomore Faith Kick is on the cheerleading team, and is just as infuriated.

“I work so hard at cheer and it is so important to me,” Kick said. “I go through too much physically and mentally for cheer to not be considered a sport.”

In the dictionary, a sport is defined, “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” 

Dance exceeds those preconceived notions.

One thing that everybody loves that is just unfair is the Mantherettes.

If I were on the dance team, I would be offended by this because they put in so many hours of hard work year-round. 

Once a year, the Mantherettes go up there, wear their tank tops, barely move, and get the crowd to go crazy, getting much more applause and cheers than the dance team does.

The whole situation degrades the girls on the team that work so hard every day. 

You don’t see girls touching a football and getting cheered for at a pep rally, do you? 

“It’s just as physically and mentally challenging as other athletic activities,” sophomore Kiera Trapp said. “I get really frustrated when people try to convince me it isn’t a sport because it’s a huge time commitment, and it takes a lot of work.”

It takes a lot of training, as dancers put in hours of strenuous work each week, and it takes so much thought and precision. Numerous people think that dancing is easy. 

Not only are you moving your body, but you are constantly counting, practicing, stretching, strengthening, memorizing and possibly acting.

Dance is so many things. It conveys emotion, culture, strength and so much more.

It is so special to see different people from different backgrounds come together in the beautiful sport, conveying creative artistry while using athleticism.

Dancers create, sweat, and go through too much pain for anyone to say that it is not worthy of being considered athletic.

Dance is art. But dancers are not just performers. They are athletes.